Jason Wilson, the chef at the helm of Crush and Miller’s Guild, was the perfect choice to rep Seattle; an intelligent and seasoned culinary mind whose recent move into cooking meat on a grill the size of a small car highlights his manly-beast side. Note tattoo.

All odds are that Greg Denton, chef of Portland’s esteemed Ox, will make an estimable rival; he certainly has the creative chops. While at Metrovino, now closed, he slayed competitors in the annual Wild About Game cookoff with a s’more-inspired duck dish, featuring foie gras marshmallow whip.

He has crafted croutons of fried sweetbreads, cooked for the Dalai Lama, and has had his steak called (by my Portland counterpart, the great Karen Brooks) “a Neanderthal dream.”

But can he make magic with chicken gizzards, juniper berries, and eel? That's the operative question tomorrow night.